Missouri State Senate
Biography for Senator Dougherty

Senator Patrick Dougherty, Democrat- St. Louis City, District 4, began his legislative career in 1978 when he was elected to the Missouri House after beating a 12-year incumbent democrat. He served in the House until his election to the Senate in a special election in January of 2001. He was sworn into office in February of 2002 and has just won the Democratic Primary in the August 2002 election.

During his career in the House, Pat Dougherty established himself as a champion of children's issues over years and particularly as he chaired the House Children, Youth and Families Committee. He sponsored dozens of pieces of legislation dealing with children and families and passed many of them. These included measures regarding: day care, abuse/neglect, immunizations, divorce/child custody, domestic violence, anti-stalking, women and children orders of protection and many more. He has received numerous awards while in the House (and the Senate) for his efforts on behalf of families and children.

While in the House, Pat also chaired the Environment committee and focused on efforts to improve the environment. He co-wrote and helped pass numerous pieces of legislation including laws to improve energy efficiency in state buildings, improve state vehicle fleet efficiency, codify new state solid waste laws and much more. Again, Pat has received many awards for these efforts.

Pat began to focus on cancer issues while in the House and has continued these efforts in the Senate. Pat helped pass the first bill in Missouri to require health insurance companies to cover breast cancer/mammogram screenings for women. He wrote legislation to also cover treatment for chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants for women who had breast cancer. Several years ago Pat wrote and passed what became a national model bill that, in Missouri, required health insurance companies to cover cancer screenings for colon, uterine and prostate cancer according to the American Cancer Society guidelines. In 2002, Senator Dougherty helped write and pass bills to require health insurance coverage of clinical trials as well as second opinions for those diagnosed with cancer. In addition, in 2002 he passed legislation allowing young teenagers to make donations of blood and bone marrow.

During the 2001 and 2002 legislative sessions, Sen. Dougherty helped write and pass legislation: to rewrite the Utilicare laws of the state which help the elderly and poor with energy assistance when it is very cold or tremendously hot; passed a new law to require lead poisoning screenings for all children at risk and obtained $1.3 million to fund the legislation. Making it a crime to lure or entice a child for illegal purposes was a priority of Sen. Dougherty. This new crime law was signed into law this August. Sen. Dougherty also co-sponsored the senior citizen prescription drug law to help seniors obtain prescription drugs and he co-sponsored the Women's Health Initiative that mandates women to have direct access to their Ob/Gyn, provide coverage for contraceptives and treatment for osteoporosis.

Senator Dougherty has also been a champion of legislation addressing neighborhood issues in the city of St. Louis as well as other bills dealing with genetics and health care. Sen. Dougherty has focused on legislation that would increase the protections for domestic pets in our state. Starting back when he was in the House, he wrote and passed the bill to outlaw the blood sport of organized dog fighting. He has subsequently passed laws to strengthen animal abuse statutes, passed the first bill to address "puppy mills", and laws to address theft of pets.

Sen. Dougherty is a member of the following Senate committees: Aging, Families and Mental Health; Appropriations; Commerce and Environment; Interstate Cooperation; Labor and Industrial Relations; Pensions and General Laws

Sen. Dougherty is a member of the following boards/advisory boards: Salvation Army Hope Center; American Lung Association of Eastern Mo.; Children's Trust Fund; United Way Government Relations; Patient Advocacy Foundation; St. Louis Crisis Nursery Advisory board; St. Louis CASA; Nurses for Newborns.

His awards include: Excellence in Health Care Legislation Award, MO Nurses Association; Legislator of the Year Award, NBA/ECHO; Outstanding Dedication and Leadership, Mental Health Assoc. of Greater St. Louis; Improving Medical Care for the Citizens of Missouri, MO State Medical Association; the 2000 Guardian Angel Award, Family Support Network; the 1999 Distinguished Legislator Award, National Association of the Mentally Ill in 1999; Children's Hero Award, Child Daycare Association Award; 1999 Volunteer Advocate, Cancer Society; Ann Dandurant Award, Prevent Child Abuse Missouri; 1998 Heroes Award from Citizens for Missouri's Children; Political Advocacy and Legislative Achievement Award from the Adoption and Foster Care Coalition of Missouri; and Legislative Friend to Animals from the Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation. Other awards include: the American Humane Society; the American Cancer Society; Missouri Women's Network; Waste Control Coalition; Reform Organization of Welfare; MASW; Silver Haired Legislature; Sierra Club; Coalition for the Environment; MoPIRG; Animal Alliance of Missouri; and Center for Policy Alternatives.

Currently, Sen. Dougherty serves on the National Conference of State Legislatures' (NCSL) Foundation and is also a member of the Foundation's Economic Development committee. In NCSL he is a member of the Assembly of State Issues (ASI) Children, Families and Health committee and the Assembly on Federal Issues (AFI), Environment committee. He is a former member of the Executive committee, past vice-chair of ASI and past chair of the AFI Environment committee.

Sen. Dougherty received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Quincy University in 1970 and attended Kenrick Theological Seminary. He is a former Division of Family Services caseworker.

Born June 30, 1948, in Decatur, Illinois, Sen. Dougherty currently resides in St. Louis with his wife Beverly. They have three children: Erica, Bridget and Elizabeth.